Iniquity (Imperial Black Ale) | Southern Tier Brewing Company

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Reviews by mhammo129:

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"A gross immorality or injustice." Huh? Why would a beer be grossly immoral? Because ap- parently this beer is "the antithesis of Unearthly." Hmm ... we already like the sound of this.

It's certainly black in the glass, nearly opaque, with soft tones of rich brown and ruby, and a creamy tan lacing that sticks and trails down the glass. Nose is grainy with spicy hop aromas, dried leaves, earth and a faint citrus note in the back. Very creamy on the palate, with a lush, smooth, but firm, body. Complex sweet and malty base up front with caramel, toasty breads (pumpernickel comes to mind), treacle syrup, chocolate and suggestions of honey. Bold and spicy hops, resiny and oily edges; also lots of dense herbal flavors, with more leaf and earth, hints of mint and splashes of floral citrus. Alcohol presence rears a bit hot on the breath, but hides well within the sweetness for the most part. Finishes wet and oily with a resiny and sticky hop linger, eventually going a bit dry, spicy and ashy.

We give it a solid A for awesome. This is a fantastic abomination of a beer. Get some.

I shared this with a friend with high hopes.a bit of a let down.Poured into a standard pint glass a deep dark black but not opaque,a thinner but well retained off white head atop.A mix of left coast hop and bitter chocolate in the nose,quite bitter and earthy.Not the hop profile I was hoping for on the palate,it left me wanting more.Big earth and unsweetened chocolate on the palate,the hops seem more subdued in citric form.A nice beer but it left me wanting more.

Pours a nice black with dark brown highlights and a light tan head on top. Even a bit darker than I expected. Aromas start out with roasty, chocolate infused malts that quickly kick into citric / piney hops. Lots of hops here with fruity accents and caramel undertones. Pretty nice.

First sip brings rather sweet dark malts upfront with chocolate and roast accents that rolls into citrus and pine resin hops. Caramel touches on the way down with a nice kick of bitterness. Finishes with sweet malt accents.

Mouthfeel is smooth and medium bodied. Goes down fairly easily while being slightly dry. Overall, this was a tasty black IPA, however I found it a bit on the sweet side malt wise.

Trying this from the bottle at home. Served in a Trois Pistoles chalice. Pours with little apparent effervescence and no head at beginning or end of pour (sign of the alcohol?). Little to no lacing with first few sips.

The first sip is all IPA and hops for me. The carbonation is almost null- feels like a flat soda. Extremely hoppy in taste, almost no malt/ black malt detected except in the structure. Appropriate for the style, but I think the malt really could come through more. The body could also use a boost.

Bitter and sharp on the finish, rounding out with a little roasted malt in the back palate. Lingering hops.

In a tulip glass this beer was black with a miniscule tan head and no lacing. Sweet, fruity aroma, some floral notes. Muted taste of dark fruit and pine. Oily in the mouth.
Southern Tier is newly arrived in Maine. Thus far, not impressed. I imagine I'll try some of their other beers.

As expected, it looks like an IPA...but black. It leaves some semblance of a web as it settles and stirs, and a heady foam dissipates to a thin layer of head coating interspersed with bacterial culture-looking bubbles. It looks like an IPA, but it's black. I suppose that's neither good nor bad, but +0.5 for novelty.

The smell is good and unlike an IPA. I don't know if it's a jedi-mind trick or not, but I smell chocolate. I also smell wood. Surely not everything that makes beers black (malts) has origins in chocolate. And I feel like I smell more oak than some oak-aged ales. Maybe it's one of the hop varieties. Though it's far different smelling than your traditional IPA, it certainly offers a pleasant aroma.

I taste toasted malts and hops. A hint of the chocolate I smelled strikes my tongue and lingers on the palate. The hops are there for the IPA effect, but not at the forefront like most imperials. With all the hop monster copycats flooding the craft beer market these days, this is a welcome effect. It tastes like an Imperial IPA with the hop presence and warming alcohol, but I suspect it's the "blackness" that presents the balance so many other doubles promise but fail to deliver. If it really is balance your looking for, this could be your beer.

That malty hoppiness makes for a magnificent mouthfeel. Though I admit I love enamel-pulling hoppiness, this beer is a fulfilling DIPA. It's a unique twist on a style ever-increasing in popularity, and it's unlike any other. The hexagram talisman on its label is appropriate because it is sorta magical--an imperial IPA is not supposed to feel this way.

The sweet sort of blackness blended with genuine IPA hop maks for a drinkable beverage. It's a really light sweetness--I don't know the calorie content, but (minus the alcohol) it seems like a dieter's dream...uh, as far as sweet beers go. A really strong offering from Southern Tier--not just the antithesis of Unearthly (as the bottle suggests), but better.